Two years ago, Oleksandr Svishchov, a well-known businessman from Lviv, bought a land plot of 50 ha and almost immediately re-sold it to a large international company, Kingspan. Svishchov re-sold the plot for three times what he had paid for it, making a profit of about UAH 250 mln.
However, this story is not about the gift of entrepreneurship but rather about a sophisticated scheme, involving Irishmen and Ukrainians, private companies, village-level officials, and even a governmental “investment nanny”.
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A desirable investor
In the spring of 2022, just a few weeks after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a large Irish company, producing energy-efficient construction materials, Kingspan Group, became one of the first to leave the markets of Russia and Belarus.
That’s when they started thinking about expanding their production in Ukraine, where Kingspan has officially been working since 2006 and is registered in Lviv. This affiliated company, Kingspan Ukraine, works as a distributor of products, imported from the Polish and Hungarian factories. At that time, Kingspan didn’t have its own production in Ukraine.
In June 2022, during his visit to Kyiv, Gene Murtha, the CEO of Kingspan Group, announced for the first time that they intended to invest EUR 200 mln into creating a construction technology hub somewhere in the west of the country. In July, the Lviv RMA announced that Kingspan was looking for a relevant plot of 40-50 ha near Lviv with access to engineering networks, international highways and rail roads to build several factories at the same time.
At that time, the entry of such a large foreign investor was a major event, so from the very beginning, it was supported by the governmental Investment Promotion Office (UkraineInvest). Actually, Kingspan Group received the so-called “investment nanny” from the state, which was to provide comprehensive support – from the search for the plot to the acceleration of bureaucratic procedures.
A meeting between Mike Stenson, the head of the investment project of Kingspan Group in Ukraine, and Denys Shmyhal, the prime minister (a photo by the government’s press service)
In September 2022, the Lviv city council even announced that they had already negotiated with Gene Murtha the creation of the construction hub in the very Lviv. Yet, there was no further development after this announcement. Andrii Pavliv, the head of the investment and projects office of the Lviv city council, explained to NGL.media that no relevant plot had been found in the city’s territory.
A strange auction
Meanwhile, a suitable land plot was found in the neighbouring village of Iampil, a part of the Murovane village community. The local village council quickly made a detailed plan, which envisaged the allocation of a plot of 50 ha of the agricultural land, changing its intended use for the construction of industrial buildings and storage facilities. They quickly carried out the expert financial evaluation and put it on sale with a starting price of UAH 82.4 mln.
The land plot met all the requirements of Kingspan – it is located near the international M06 route, and there is a working railway nearby. The auction conditions met Kingspan’s requirements too – the plot buyer was to implement the investment project, worth at least UER 100 mln, in that place in the course of five years, and create at least 360 new vacancies with the salaries of EUR 500-1000.
A schematic presentation of the Kingspan’s construction hub project which was to consist of several production sites in the village of Iampil near Lviv (the visualization by Delta Group)
Yet, for some reason, the Kingspan company, or rather its Ukrainian “daughter”, Kingspan Ukraine LLC, didn’t come forward to take part in the auction. As a result, the sale involved only two participants, and the plot was bought for UAH 102.7 mln by JSC Closed-End Undiversified Venture Corporate Investment Fund “Lev”, which belongs to Oleksandr Svishchov, a businessman from Lviv the second participant of the auction, Primary Investment LLC, which belongs to Svitlana Bocharova from Lviv, offered UAH 85.3 mln for this plot. NGL.media didn’t find any direct connection between Primary Investment and JSC CEUVCIF “Lev”.
Oleksandr Svishchov (a photo by the press service)
55-year-old Oleksandr Svishchov had been a business partner of Hryhorii Kozlovskyi, a businessman from Lviv, and a co-owner of Vynnyky tobacco factory, which was often featured in cigarette smuggling, for many years. However, in 2023, Svishchov officially left this business, although his daughter, Viktoria Svishchova, is still the owner of the trademarks of cigarettes, produced at the Vynnyky factory.
In recent years, Oleksandr Svishchov, together with Tomáš Fiala, a well-known investment banker, started investing in the production of mineral water. At first, it was in the Lviv region, and later – in the Transcarpathian region. He also owns a lot of real estate in Lviv, including the famous sports and entertainment complex “Leoland” and a stone townhouse in Rynok Square.
Pay up first
On March 25, 2024, the Murovane village council signed an agreement on the sale of the plot for UAH 102.7 mln to the auction winner, JSC CEUVCIF “Lev”. Three weeks later, on April 15, Svishchov’s company re-sold this plot for EUR 8.4 mln (UAH 351.4 mln at the NBU exchange rate) to Kingspan Property LLC, created specifically to implement the construction hub project. It was almost three and a half times more than the Murovane village council had got.
It follows from the agreement on re-sale, which is at the disposal of NGL.media, that Kingspan Property and the JSC CEUVCIF “Lev” had signed the preliminary agreement even prior to the auction, by which Kingspan Property made a pre-payment to Svishchov’s company in the amount of UAH 105.3 mln two security payments – EUR 837.5 thousand (UAH 34.2 mln) and EUR 1.7 mln (UAH 71 mln). This amount almost matches the final offer of JSC CEUVCIF “Lev” in the auction.
The money came in two parts on February 26 and March 19, 2024 The agreement on re-sale doesn’t specify when the agreements on security payments were signed, yet there are dates when the exchange rate was considered – February 26 and March 19, 2024 – prior to the agreement between the village council and JSC CEUVCIF “Lev”. So, one may assume that the re-sale of the land plot had been coordinated in advance, and its purchase was paid for using the money of Kingspan Property.
The representatives of JSC CEUVCIF “Lev”, Kingspan Property, and Oleksandr Svishchov didn’t answer the questions from NGL.media.
Two weeks after the re-sale of the land plot, Kingspan Property received from the Murovane village council the city-planning conditions and restrictions for the building of a complex of factory facilities for the production of the company’s construction materials. At that moment, the volume of declared investment increased up to EUR 280 mln.
The losses of the village council, worth UAH 248.6 mln
In May 2025, the NABU took an interest in this matter. The response to NGL.media’s inquiry shows that the criminal investigation is ongoing pursuant to part 5 of Art. 191 of the CCU – property embezzlement through a conspiracy on a particularly large scale, taking advantage of one’s official position.
The NABU detectives suspect that JSC CEUVCIF “Lev” was intended to become the auction winner in advance, and the scheme itself was implemented with the support of the officials of the Murovane village council, the Lviv RMA, and the governmental Investment Promotion Office.
“Abusing their authority and official positions, they arranged for the land plot auction in such a way as to exclude buyers who could have purchased the land at market price,” this is stated in the case materials at the disposal of NGL.media.
The NABU is certain that Svishchov’s investment fund bought a land plot at a decreased price and re-sold it at the market price, and the obtained profit of UAH 248.6 mln was shared among the village council officials, Oleksandr Svishchov and UkraineInvest. To find the evidence of this conspiracy, several weeks ago the NABU detectives made a search of the suspects, including Svishchov’s Lviv office.
In a conversation with NGL.media, Stepan Kuibida, who headed the department of the economic policy of the LRMA at the moment of the auction, denied the NABU’s suspicions about the involvement of the LRMA.
“The regional military administration only collected offers from communities about land plots which potentially met the investor’s criteria and gave him the completed list. After that, the investor independently determined which variants he was interested in,” Stepan Kuibida claims.
The same opinion is held by the governmental Investment Promotion Office. The response to the NGL.media’s inquiry states that UkraineInvest didn’t take part in the investor’s decisions on selecting a plot or participating in the auction.
Bohdan Svystun, the head of the Murovane village council, who was given an official notice of suspicion at the end of 2025 for similar land schemes regarding other plots in Iampil, refused to talk to NGL.media.
Which role did Kingspan Group representatives play in this story?
It is worth noting that the NABU materials on alleged sharing of the price difference of UAH 250 mln as a result of re-selling the land plot don’t feature the officials of Kingspan Property LLC – Orysia Yaremko from Lviv and Mike Stenson from Ireland, who has been heading Kingspan Group’s investment project in Ukraine since 2023.
The NABU isn’t entitled to investigate the circumstances of private agreements, since the Ukrainian “daughter” of Kingspan bought a plot on the commercial market, from a private enterprise. Yet the behaviour of the management of the Kingspan Property LLC, which resulted in Kingspan Group’s getting a required land plot at the price, that exceeds the possible one three times, is rather suggestive.
Orysia Yaremko, Mike Stenson, and the main Irish office of Kingspan Group haven’t responded to NGL.media’s inquiry.
Meanwhile, two years after the purchase, the land plot still remains empty – no construction work has been started yet. The large-scale investment project worth EUR 280 mln, the first turn of which should have been completed this year, remains only on paper.
Author Viktoria Eismunt, editor Oleh Onysko, translation Nelya Plakhota, cover Viktoria Demchuk
